Can a taxpayer whom is not the main member of a medical aid scheme; claim medical deductions for his/ her mother?
Important:
This answer is based on tax law year ending 28 February 2017.
Answer:
For purposes of the guidance that follows we accepted that the issue is whether the client qualifies for the additional medical expenses tax credit (section 6B of the Income Tax Act) – as the ability to make a deduction is no longer possible.
The first issue that is relevant then is the definition of ‘dependent’ in section 6B(1). We copy the relevant part for your convenience:
A “dependant” means … (c) any other member of a person’s family in respect of whom he or she is liable for family care and support. In the Explanatory Memorandum when this section was introduced into the Act the following example was given:
“Facts: A single taxpayer under 65 years of age, and not disabled, incurs medical expenses on behalf of his or her mother. This taxpayer is liable for family care and support in respect of his or her mother.
Result: The taxpayer will be able to add the expenditure incurred in respect of his or her mother to his own medical expenditure.”
Section 6B therefore doesn’t use the term ‘immediate family’ that was used in the repealed section 18.
The next issue is that the expenses must be ‘qualifying medical expenses’. This is defined in section 6B(1), but would not include ‘food … cell phone’ costs.
We are not sure if you mean that the client also pays the medical aid contributions – you stated that the “client pays for her mother's … medical aid”. The section 6A rebate requires that the dependant must be a ‘dependant’ as defined in section 1 of the Medical Schemes Act. In terms of the Medical Schemes Act, 1998, “dependant” means:
(a) the spouse or partner, dependent children or other members of the member's immediate family in respect of whom the member is liable for family care and support; or
(b) any other person who, under the rules of a medical scheme, is recognised as a dependant of a member.
SARS’s view on this is the following:
“The term “immediate family”, in both definitions of “dependant”, is a particular group of relatives used in rules of law. This group is limited to a person’s spouse or life partner, parents (including adoptive and step-parents), children (including adopted and step-children) and siblings.”